Food As An Investment

I’ve long taken the position that gold and silver are actually poor investments compared to other possibilities. I’ve written several articles here to this effect, stating my position.

Tonight, I decided to check and see what has happened in the past year with wholesale food prices. Each year, I receive a new price list, except last year, I received several as the canneries struggled to stay ahead of the rapidly escalating prices.

I just published a new price list Wednesday, so I compared this list with the list from this time last year. Here is what I found out - and it’s far more shocking then even I realized. All calculations are based on wholesale prices set by the cannery. They are the result of their buying power (which is quite substantial) and the current market prices.

The ranges listed below are price increase for the large container sizes (bags or buckets) from 2007 to 2008 (only 1 year):

Hard Red Wheat 58% - 76%
Hard White Wheat 58% - 85%
Corn Whole Yellow 42% - 82%
Alfalfa Sprout Seeds 31% - 48%
Great Northern 16% - 32%
Potato Slices 20% - 24%
Brown Rice 10% - 29%
White Rice 13% - 27%
Eggs Mix 29% - 33%
Rye 17% - 36%
Lentils 22% - 33%
Soy Beans 17% - 24%
Ezekiel Mix 20% - 24%
Pearl Barley 37%
Flax 44% - 54%
Golden Flax 18% - 28%
1 Year, 1 Person, 66 #10 cans 25%
1 Year Basic Food Storage, 13 SP Buckets 69%
All Purpose Flour 59% - 72%
Bakers Flour 54% - 65%
Unbleached Flour 59% - 72%
Whole Wheat Flour 59% - 88%
Apple Slices 44% - 51%
Banana Slices 19% - 27%
7 Grain Mix 32% - 45%
9 Grain Cracked Cereal 36% - 56%
Kamut 17% - 25%
Buttermilk Powder 42% - 53%
Instant Milk 44% - 96%
Regular non fat Milk 24% - 31%
Oats Groats 25%
Quick Rolled Oats 19% - 25%
Regular Rolled Oats 19% - 25%
Peas Split Green 23% - 35%
Peas Whole Green 25% - 30%
Peas Whole Green 25%
Popcorn 25% - 29%
Potato Completely Supreme 24% - 38%
Potato Dices 13% - 23%
Potato Flakes 17% - 26%
Potato Hashbrowns 28% - 41%
Potato Slices 20% - 25%

February 2007 gold was $655, February 2008 gold is $920, or 40% increase in the past year. The facts are clear - gold is NOT keeping up with many commodity prices.

All food commodities have gone up in price, not just those I’ve listed above. These are the noteworthy ones and the staples most Americans eat.

Personally, I don’t really advocate “food as an investment”, but I wanted this article to get some viewing. If I’d titled it “Food Crisis Ahead” (true), or “Skyrocketing Food Prices Force Americans To Consider the Reality of Famine” (also true), most of the sheep would just keep right on grazing, oblivious to what’s happening. As it is, I don’t expect anything to change despite the clear evidence that we are raising the price of food faster then anything else (including oil).

Most people simply refuse to recognize what this means for the future. Their hope is things will stabilize or somehow even decline in costs. This remains very unlikely since energy costs are still jumping and resource depletion is now a fact of life all over the world. I dare say we can expect at least a 25% price increase in food per year and in some cases, it will be much worse.

One piece of good news: At least some Canadians are not seeing huge wheat price increases - yet. Good, grab what you can, while you can.

Maybe somebody can chime in on how much our purchasing power has declined with the US dollar in the last year, I’m too tired to go look it up.

Original at: http://survivalacres.com/wordpress/?p=1222